Note 302 — LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT DE MOULCEAU.[301] FROM 1681 TO 1682.

Anne Jules, Duke de Noailles, had been nominated to the command in Languedoc, of which the Duke du Maine, then too young to take it upon himself, had just been appointed governor. Preparations were making for the destruction of Calvinism. In conjunction with the intendant d’Aguesseau, father of the celebrated chancellor, Noailles endeavored for a long time to engage the court to employ mild measures; and even in the execution of the most rigorous he at first showed some humanity; but he afterward became one of the most violent persecutors, and his dispatches, concerted with Louvois, did not fail to excite the king to rigors of which he too late repented.